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The History of Ireland Scotland and Wales Osher Lifelong Learning Lecture 8

We will examine Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history and culture from 500 BC to the present. In particular, lectures and discussions will focus on the early cultural identity of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh and their customs and mythologies; the influence of Roman culture and Christianity on these lands and peoples; the English conquest and colonization of these lands and peoples; and, finally, on the process of political devolution in all three areas. These aspects of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history will be examined through historical documents and literature, art, music, and film clips. Students will emerge from the class with a clear sense of the events that shaped the early history and culture of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and how those events continue to shape these areas even to the present day.

Irish postage stamp issued in 2007, commemorating the 1607 flight of the earls.

Depiction of the massacre of Protestants in Ulster, 1641.

The History of Ireland Scotland and Wales Osher Lifelong Learning Lecture 8

1.
The English Conquest of Ireland
• Anglo-Norman conquest
began in the 1170s
– Influx of Anglo-Norman
families like the
Fitzgeralds, Fitzgilberts,
etc.
• Statute of Kilkenny, 1376
• Important Anglo-Irish
families in the 15th century
– Butler earls of Ormond held
positions of authority in
Ireland until mid-1400s
– FitzGerald earls of Kildare
became most important
family from 1450s onward

2.
The English Conquest of Ireland
Portrait of Silken Thomas Fitzgerald, water color copy of the original, by Sarah
Countess of Essex, in Lucy Aiken’s Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth,
1825.
• Fitzgeralds and Tudors
– Gerald FitzGerald, ninth earl of
Kildare
• Made governor of Ireland in
1513
• Recalled to court in 1519
for acting outside English
authority; restored to office
in 1524
• Recalled to court in 1533,
imprisoned, died in 1534
– “Silken Thomas” FitzGerald,
Lord Offaly, son of Gerald
FitzGerald
• Raised a revolt against
Henry VIII in 1534
• Captured in 1535, executed
in 1537

3.
The English Conquest of Ireland
Portrait of Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein the Younger, Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool.
• Ireland’s new order
– Lord Leonard Grey, appointed Lord Deputy
of Ireland in 1536
– Archbishop of Dublin, George Browne,
appointed in 1536
– Dublin parliament called in 1536-7, Henry
acknowledged as head of the Irish church,
English reforms brought to Dublin
– Anthony St. Leger, appointed Lord Deputy of
Ireland in 1540
– Henry VIII declared king of Ireland, 1541
– “Surrender and regrant”
• O’Neills recognized as earls of Tyrone in 1542
– 1556 plantation of Offaly and Laois
• Aimed at the O’Moore and O’Connor clans
– 1560 Act of Uniformity
– 1584 plantation of Munster
• Followed on the heels of a revolt led by the
FitzGerald earls of Desmond

4.
An Act for the Uniformitie of Common Prayer and service in the church,
and the Administration of the Sacraments, 1560
•
•
Where at the death of our late soverain lord King Edward the 6.
there remained one uniforme order of common service, prayer and
the administration of sacraments, rites and ceremonies in the
church of England, which was set forth in one book, inituled, “The
book of Common Prayer, and administration of Sacraments”… [let]
the said book with the order of service, and of the administration of
sacraments, rites and ceremonies, …stand and bee from and after
the feast of Pentecost, next ensuing, in full force and effect…
And further be it enacted…that all and singular ministers in any
cathedrall or parish church, or other place within this realm of
Ireland, shall from and after the feast of Saint John Baptist, then
next ensuing, be bounden to say and use the mattens, evensong,
celebration of the Lord’s supper, and administration of each of the
sacraments, and all their common and open prayer, in such order
and form as is mentioned in the said book…

7.
The English Conquest of Ireland
• The consequences of the plantation of Ulster
– 2 million acres seized; only 50,000 regranted to native Irish
– 200,000 acres to “undertakers,” who were to build castles,
maintain garrisons, and not sublet to native Irish
– 100,000 acres to the Protestant Church of Ireland
– County and town of Derry seized and given into control of
London companies, who organized settlement
– Much of this land bought by speculators, who rented lands back
to native Irish tenants
• Native Irish tenants had no protection against eviction; English and Scottish
settlers could not be evicted without just cause
– In 1613, the Dublin parliament abolished Brehon law and
replaced it with English Common law and English courts

8.
The English Civil War in Ireland
Depiction of the massacre of Protestants in Ulster, 1641.
•
The Revolt of 1641
– 4000 Protestants in Ulster killed
•
Catholic Confederation of
Kilkenny, 1641
– Rebels declared Ireland independent
and declared support for Charles I
– Earl of Ormond declared truce with the
confederation on behalf of Charles I,
1643
•
•
By 1645, Ireland divided between
the Catholic Confederation, the
earl of Ormond, and the
Protestants in Ulster
In 1648, Ormond surrendered
Dublin to London’s parliament
– Charles I had been captured and
imprisoned in 1646

9.
The English Civil War in Ireland
•
Massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, 1649-1650
– Cromwell: “I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these
barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood;
and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future…”
•
Act of Parliament, 1652
– Ireland proclaimed part of the Commonwealth
– 10 million acres seized and granted to English settlers
• 80% of all land in Ireland; 50% of the arable land
• 12,000 Irish transported as prisoners to the West Indies; 34,000 sent abroad as foreign
mercenaries
– Bardic schools closed
•
Restoration, 1660-1685
– Dublin parliament restored
– Catholics barred from parliament, 1672
•
Battle of the Boyne, 1690
– Native and Anglo-Irish supporters of James II versus supporters of William and
Mary
– The “Orangemen” = supporters of William of Orange in Ulster

10.
The English Conquest of Ireland
Map of Ireland by 1620
• By the reign of William III
and Mary II, 12 million
(out of 15 million) acres in
Ireland had been seized
and granted to
Protestants. 4/5 of the
population still Catholic.
• Catholics required to pay
tithe to the Church of
Ireland (Protestant)

11.
The English Conquest of Ireland
• Penal laws, 1690-1730
– Catholics forbidden to sit in Dublin Parliament
– No Catholics allowed to hold government offices (military, civil,
or religious) unless they converted to Church of Ireland first
– Catholics forbidden to “seduce” others into “popery”
– Protestants forbidden to be “seduced” into “popery”
– No intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants
– Any Catholic father whose son converted to Church of Ireland
became the tenant of that son
– Lands held by a Catholic father would be, upon his death,
divided between all his sons, UNLESS the eldest son was a
Protestant, in which case he inherited all

12.
The English Conquest of Ireland
• Penal laws, continued
– Priests required to register their names and the names of their
parish, on penalty of branding with a hot iron; priests also
required to take an oath of loyalty to William and Mary
• 20,000 registered; many others exiled
– Crosses in public places to be destroyed; towers or steeples on
Catholic churches prohibited; pilgrimage to holy sites prohibited
– Catholics barred from sending their children out of the country
for an education (all schools, including Trinity University, now
Protestant)
– Catholics forbidden to run their own schools
– Catholics forbidden to practice law
– No juries used in trial of Catholic defendants
– Catholics forbidden to own weapons or a horse worth more than
£5
– Catholics forbidden to vote in parliamentary elections

14.
The English Conquest of Ireland
• A light at the end of the tunnel?
– By 1778, Dublin Parliament had repealed many penal laws
– By 1782, Dublin Parliament responsible for all internal affairs
– In 1793, Dublin Parliament voted to enfranchise Catholic voters
• But…
– The United Irishmen (1791) and Wolfe Tone (1763-1798)
• Goals included independence of Ireland, a democratic franchise, an end to
corruption in Irish politics, and Catholic emancipation
• Revolt in Leinster and Wexford, summer of 1798
– Act of Union, 1800—Dublin Parliament abolished
• Article 1: “…the said Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall…
be united into one Kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland…”
• Article 2: “… that the said United Kingdom be represented in one
and the same Parliament…”
• 100 MPs and 32 lords from Ireland to attend London Parliament